


How Many Wonders

by elfiepike



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Fairy Tales, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-19
Updated: 2012-01-19
Packaged: 2017-10-29 19:00:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/323083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elfiepike/pseuds/elfiepike
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, there was a prince of the sea, half fish and half man, who loved to go to the surface of the water even though he knew it was forbbiden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Many Wonders

**Author's Note:**

> this fills my [rainbowfilling](http://rainbowfilling.livejournal.com/) square for "disney fusion"! thanks to [mars](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ltgmars) for beta-reading.

Once upon a time, there was a prince of the sea, half fish and half man, who loved to go to the surface of the water even though he knew it was forbbiden. He loved more than anything to watch the way the ships went through the waves, their weight dispursing in a wake that made him rise up and down.

There was a particular ship that caught his eye, one night, bearing more flags and lights than any he'd seen before. He had no way of knowing such things meant this ship belonged to the king and queen of the nearest land-based kingdom; he only knew that the sound of music coming from the deck made his heart start to race with excitement.

When he slithered up the side as best he could to peek through the railings, there was a man there who man him wonder, for the first time, what it might be like to be human.

 

Jun normally considered himself a capable individual and - realistic. Logical. Serious - perhaps too serious - but definitely able to adjust to new situations, given time. So he really couldn't figure out why he wasn't sleeping lately.

"If you will pardon me for saying, your highness," Sakurai said, neatly assisting Jun out of his housecoat, one arm at a time, "it has been less that three weeks since your birthday celebration and - the accident. It is not unusual for an individual to take time to regain their footing afterwards."

"Right, of course." He watched Nino sleepily roll over on the bed, the dachshund's long body curled up like the letter C. If only he could have the same sense of ease-- He stopped that train of thought; it seemed too dramatic even in the privacy of his own mind. "As always, your counsel is appreciated. Thank you, Sakurai."

Sakurai knew a dismissal when he heard one. He bowed shortly and, after hanging Jun's housecoat up in the closet, left.

Jun barely noticed the door closing behind him. He was distracted by his thoughts, by all the things he couldn't tell even Sakurai, whom he knew would keep a secret even from Jun's parents if Jun were to ask it of him.

The reason he couldn't understand his own sleepless nights was because he couldn't bring himself to acknowledge what actually happened. Perhaps his logic and realism was what was failing him right now. (Logically, what he experienced with his own body and his own eyes - that was what he should consider real.)

 

 _Nino was a present on Jun's birthday, but even Jun could immediately see that the dog was unhappy about being on the boat, his little tail tucked low and his brow wrinkled. Jun was already a little in love, just because Nino let Jun pick him up and cuddle him a bit. (Most animals seemed to sense Jun's desire to love them intensely, and ran away accordingly.) "He looks a little nervous, doesn't he," he whispered to Sakurai while the staff prepared a table for dinner on deck and got in the sailors' way._

 _"I can put him in your cabin; perhaps he's troubled by all the people," Sakurai said._

 _When the flames started licking up the sides of the boat, that was all Jun could think of: Nino stuck in his cabin, definitely too tiny to escape without help. He didn't think about how he might be stuck there, too, the tiny porthole window big enough for him to toss the dog down into Sakurai's waiting arms, but not big enough for his own shoulders to fit through._

 _There was a crash and the ship lurched to the side. "Prince Jun, your highness! Jun!_ Jun _!" Sakurai shouted and shouted, but smoke was coming in through the bottom of the cabin door and Jun couldn't see a way out._

 _"Go on without me!" Jun yelled down at them. "Get out of here!" From a quick glance it looked like all the staff and sailors had found their way onto the lifeboats. That would have to be good enough._

 _The ship lurched again, the floor slanting up impossibly, knocking Jun off his feet. He could hear the lumber breaking up around him. He wasn't quite ready to die, though, not without a fight; he was still frantically searching through the holds and corners for something he could use to - something, anything - when a support beam collapsed, the water rising up through the floor even as the ceiling caved in from fire._

He didn't know how he got out of the wreckage. His memory was restricted to flashes of darkness and cold and pressure, the feel of swift water around and something pulling him up and up.

And a face.

This was the part he couldn't admit to himself - let alone confess to Sakurai: when he closed his eyes at night, he remembered that face, the one that had been there when he'd woken up on the beach, battered and bruised but alive, _alive_. He remembered the way he'd heard the humming first, soft and melodic but absentminded, and when he'd opened his eyes, there the creature had been, with a face too human - round cheeks and a sharp nose, jawline defined by the wet hair still clinging to it. When Sakurai had shouted his name, the creature had turned in surprise, and, in a whirl of skin and scales, disappeared.

 

Now, instead of sleeping, instead of talking about what happened - though he'd found himself mentioning it to Nino, while Nino kneaded the blankets before curling up for a nap, and then berating himself for bothering Nino with his problems (and then scoffing because, really, Nino's a dog, he doesn't care) - Jun walked. At first he'd tried to waylay his sleepless nights with books or business, but when the castle was quiet and even Nino's big eyes were closed, Jun couldn't stop himself from thinking of that face again.

Each night he walked a different path, but each night he ended up at the beach. He didn't know what he expected to see - perhaps he'd run into a fisherman with that face, and the mystery would be solved.

Tonight he didn't bother to put it off. He'd end it, he thought, he'd end it tonight: tomorrow, he would go back to being the normal, reasonable and conscientious prince that his reputation held him to be. He would order powders for sleep and remind himself that he and Nino and Sakurai - that everyone was all right and that was all that mattered.

Tonight would be the last night he would walk the beach, seeking something that couldn't possibly exist.

It was a good night for it, too: the waves were calm, lapping gently at the sand in smooth, glittering patterns that disappeared as soon as they were created. There was a breeze, but it was gentle on Jun's face, cool and strangely muffling, like he could be wrapped up and healed by it. He was just far enough from the castle that he could pretend the remaining lights were but more stars, and that it was only him and the half-moon above seeing the ocean like this tonight.

Him, the half-moon, and the person dragging themselves slowly onto the shore.

The shock of the sight made Jun stop in his tracks, unable for a moment to comprehend what he was seeing. Then he raced forwards - they were a good ways down the beach from him, though the beach wasn't all that long, but they seemed to be struggling, like they had injured themselves somehow -

"Are you all right?" Jun called out as he came nearer. This close, he could see that they were naked, skin highlighted in wet streaks that went smoothly from their shoulder all the way down the line of their hips, their buttocks and - Jun looked away, instead deftly undoing the clasp on the long cloak he wore for his walks. It would more than suffice as cover from the elements and prying eyes, he thought. "Here, let me help you."

The person was out of the waves by the time Jun got there, their - his, Jun thought, for the build was slight and slim but still masculine, with the subtle veins in his arms and without the curves Jun associated with the women of the court, who wore outfits to either hide their figures or show them off. He didn't say anything when Jun draped his cloak over him, though - just hunched down in it, shivering, flat on his front in the sand, his fingers digging in like he might fall off the ground at any moment.

"Here, it'll be all right," Jun said, crouching down to get a closer look. It didn't look like the man was injured in any apparent way - though his glance had been brief, he had seen no blood or obvious disfigurement. That didn't rule out illness, though, and he must have come from somewhere - perhaps a ship? How would he have ended up here, on the royal shoreline (deemed as such not only due to its proximity to the castle but also because of the nasty rocks just off the shore that good sailors did their best to stay away from. Jun wondered again how he himself had landed here, that day, then shook it off - there were more important things to see to right now)?

The man breathed heavily under the cloak, his back going up and down in quiet, panting gasps. Jun looked out to sea, but could see nothing that the man might have jumped from and couldn't imagine how far he'd had to have swum to get here.

Slowly, the man's breathing calmed, and Jun lifted his hand from his back, unsure when he had put it there in the first place - some comforting instinct he hadn't realized he had. He was about to ask again if the man was all right, but the man propped himself up on one elbow first and turned to face him.

He was half-covered in sand and in the moonlight Jun couldn't be sure, but his face, his face!

"You," Jun started, and couldn't speak for a minute.

The man lifted his hand and touched Jun's face so gently that Jun barely noticed the smooth, cool pressure. His face was intense with concentration, brow furrowed and eyes unblinking.

"You can't be," Jun started again. He couldn't move. He must be asleep; heaven knew those round cheeks and dark eyes haunted his waking dreams often enough. He was aware of coming to rest heavily on his knees, and unconsciously leaned into the man's palm.

The man pushed himself further up, the cloak sliding down his body and gathering around his waist, but when he moved to sit like Jun was sitting he grimaced and drew his hand back sharply. He seemed unable to rest on his legs, sliding awkwardly to rest on his elbow again. Jun reached out for him without even meaning to, holding him steady.

"Are you hurt?" Jun asked, urgently. If he'd missed anything, if the man _was_ hurt, then Jun might have to run for help, and what if he wasn't fast enough?

Thankfully the man shook his head in denial. Jun let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He couldn't believe it - it couldn't possibly be real. He smiled and was aware that it wasn't his professional, princely smile, and he didn't care. "And you're not ill?"

The man shook his head again, looking up through tendrils of damp hair.

"Let's get you out of the cold," Jun said, pulling his cloak back over the man's shoulders and clasping it for him. He tried not to let the thrill of the few brushes of his hands on the man's skin show in his manners towards him. "If I may be so bold as to ask from where you came? There aren't any ships for miles."

The man looked out over the dark ocean, smooth and shining in peaks like obsidian.

Jun stared with him, and for a long moment they were both silent, the breeze turning colder around them.

Somehow he got the man onto his back and carried him to the castle. It wasn't a particularly long walk, and the man wasn't particularly heavy, but Jun could feel the weight in his arms distinctly nonetheless, like it was more precious than anything else he'd held. The warmth seeping through his thin night shirt, the man's slim arms around his shoulders - they were all he could think about as he made his way through the back gates and back into his wing of the castle.

The hallways were empty, this late at night, and Jun couldn't be more thankful. How could he explain what was happening? Somehow to say, "This is a man I've seen in my dreams every night," was impossible.

The man was still and quiet, only clenching his grip a littler tighter when Jun had to let go with one hand to open his door. Jun was intimately aware of the man's nudity against him, the cloak swirling around his knees.

Nino's head popped up from where he was curled up on the bed, and then he stood and barked, just once, when Jun laid the man down atop the sheets.

Jun shushed him, then picked him up, gently. "Just this once, but never again, I promise," he told the little dog, putting him away in the bathroom with his favorite toy and shutting the door.

Turning back to the man, Jun instinctively moved more slowly, his steps more careful on his return to the bed. The man had propped himself up on one elbow while Jun fussed over Nino, and now Jun had to force himself to look at his face and not at the skin revealed by the cloak opening up around him.

Jun sat on the edge of the bed, body turned towards the man. He swallowed, then said, "You _are_ him, aren't you?"

The man nodded.

Jun lowered his eyes, overcome by how impossible this seemed. This couldn't be real, but he didn't know how he would go on if it were just a dream. (He would allow himself to be dramatic like this, in his own mind.) "Thank you," he said.

He only noticed the man reaching out for him when his hand was nearly on Jun's face. There was a pause, then, when their eyes met, and then the man's soft fingertips were on Jun's cheek, gliding slowly towards his chin. The man leaned in until their faces almost touched, as if leaving the decision for Jun.

As if Jun hadn't been thinking about him for weeks.

Jun kissed him, and since they were already there, he bedded him, too: gentle and slow and soft, checking everything against the man's expressions, whether he shook his head or nodded. With someone else, his silence might have been eerie, but instead it made it seem more dreamlike. It forced Jun to keep his eyes open, to stare at how the man's hands clenched at the blankets, the way his back arched when Jun brought his hand up between his thighs. When Jun rubbed his fingers in that secret place, exploratively, the man let out a breath that, even soundless, made Jun want to touch him forever. Jun stared at his face until the man looked at him through those half-lidded eyes, sweat beading along his hairline in the most appealing way.

"Would you like me to take you?" Jun asked, unsure if he was hoping the man could tell how much he wanted it or not.

The man stared back at him, stared and stared until Jun thought he was making a mistake, but then he was pulled back to the man's mouth, and the man kissed him, open-mouthed and dirtier than they had kissed before. He twined his fingers through Jun's, then pulled one of Jun's hands to his face and kissed it, too.

"Is that a yes," Jun asked, breathless from how that soft tongue felt along his fingers.

The man nodded.

Jun went to the cabinet and brought back his oil.

 

He'd only just taken out his fingers and started sliding inside himself when the man came, pearlescent spurts glistening across his belly in the moonlight. Jun felt almost giddy, accomplished and turned on, kissing the man again and pressing further into that tight heat.

Then the man moaned, the first noise he made all night, the sound going directly from his mouth into Jun's. It was so startling that Jun had to stop and stare at him.

"Please," the man gasped, fingers tightening on Jun's sides, "keep going."

It was impossible to refuse a request like that, so Jun did, his heart beating throughout his whole body to the steady rhythm of the man's addictive gasps and moans.

 

Later, after Jun had come inside him and brought the man to a second release, Jun said, softly, "You can talk."

The man nodded, tangling his feet between Jun's calves. His back was hot against Jun's chest.

"You couldn't before?" Jun asked. It was good to be clear about these things.

The man shook his head, and Jun held him tighter.

"What's your name?"

"Satoshi."

"Satoshi," Jun repeated, feeling the word in his mouth. "I'm Jun."

"I know," Satoshi said, blinking slowly and trailing his long nails along the outside of Jun's wrist in a way that felt dangerously like they would be starting up again soon if the man - _Satoshi_ \- didn't seem so sleepy. "I was watching your party, on the ship. That's why I was there when it crashed."

Jun wanted to say thank you again, but it didn't feel like enough; by the same token, it felt too soon to ask Satoshi to stay with him forever. Maybe it could wait a few days.

There was a pitiful whine from behind the bathroom door, and Jun reluctantly uncurled himself to let Nino out of the bathroom, getting a damp cloth while he was there.

He was both gratified and weirdly jealous to see how Nino had instantly taken to Satoshi, licking his face while Satoshi grinned.

As long as they were both there in the morning, he would allow it.

  
_one year later_   


Jun was working in his office, studying the recent reports from one of their foreign ambassadors, when Satoshi came back. Satoshi had taken to fishing as a hobby and would head out early on days Jun had to work, to keep himself occupied.

Even before knowing the full story - how Satoshi had been not quite human himself, before Jun met him that night on the beach - Jun had been a little annoyed about it, and about how Satoshi's skin grew dark as if he hadn't any cares for appearances at all...but it made him happy, and that was enough.

Jun set down the report and listened to the sound of Satoshi's sandals coming up the hallway, accompanied by Nino's little claws (Nino had never liked boats again, but he would go to the docks and sleep in the sun while waiting for Satoshi to return) and - the smile that had been building disappeared when he noticed another set of footsteps, definitely not refined enough to be Sakurai's.

He stood up and fully opened the door. Satoshi was already there, hand raised to knock, and so was another person - tall, taller than Jun, with copper hair that curled just a little around his ears and a face that was almost unfairly pretty.

He was also naked but for Satoshi's sea blanket tied around his waist.

"Oh, Jun," Satoshi said, smiling and lowering his hand. "Hi."

"Hello," Jun answered, feeling cross but trying to be polite as Satoshi, who was all but engaged to Jun (the only real delay at this point was that Jun was waiting for the next full moon, even knowing that Satoshi probably wouldn't care - Jun couldn't help being a romantic in some ways; being with Satoshi had shown him that), came home with a beautiful naked man who had the most extraordinary birthmark on his shoulder.

Jun tried not to stare. "Who's your friend, Satoshi?" He stepped to the side to let them all in, but Nino was still the first to skirt around Jun's toes and head to the little bed he had by Jun's desk.

"This is Aiba," Satoshi said, shuffling behind the dog and ignoring how his friend seemed more intent upon seeing everything around him, craning his head this way and that, than propriety.

"Nice to meet you," Jun said, gesturing again for Aiba to come in, before finally letting his frustration through and pushing him in himself, shutting the door firmly behind them.

"Nice to meet you, too! Satoshi's told me so much about you!" Aiba enthused, finally turning to look at Jun properly. His smile was so huge Jun thought it was becoming troublesome to be annoyed.

"He's told me exactly nothing about you," Jun said, going for dry instead of fierce. That smile really was something else.

"Oh," Satoshi said, "Aiba gave me the stuff that made me human."

Jun felt his eyes go wide and jaw drop and couldn't do anything to stop it.

"The whole not-talking thing was just an unexpected side effect!" Aiba assured them both. "As you can see, I've perfected it now so it is in fact a temporary salve - you don't even have to make sweet tender love to get it to work right!"

Satoshi smiled at Jun. "But I liked that part, too."

"Look, it's even safe for the littlest creatures," Aiba said, leaning over Nino and pouring something from a small bottle over his head. Jun was too busy boggling at where he might have hidden the bottle - the blanket was falling down, now, so there really wasn't somewhere he could have put it - to notice the effect at first.

"What have you done to me," demanded a grumpy and unfamiliar voice.

"Ah, Nino!" Satoshi said.

There was a slim, naked man lying on Nino's bed. But it couldn't be -

Aiba and the new person - Nino, Jun would just have to deal - started to squabble when Nino pulled the blanket completely off to cover himself, shivering. Jun's eyebrows drew together in growing irritation - but then Satoshi was there, looking up at him, nudging up next to him the way he did when he wanted Jun to wrap his arm around his shoulders and kiss him.

So Jun did.

The door opened again, and it was Sakurai holding a tray of lunch for Jun and Satoshi. "Prince Jun," he said, then cut himself off just as Aiba and Nino looked over at him. "Oh, you have quite a few guests now," he substituted, always tactful. "I'll prepare another plate."


End file.
